The first day of the Chinese New Year falls on February 10 this year. Also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, the festival marking the advent of spring is widely celebrated in China and several East Asian countries.

Families traditionally gather during this time to share sumptuous meals, while children are often given money in red packets known as "hong bao."

The start of the Lunar Year also sees the rotation of the Chinese zodiac that runs over a 12-year cycle, each represented by an animal.

There are several stories explaining the zodiac: One legend goes that the Jade Emperor — an important Chinese deity — had invited all the animals to a "great swimming race," with the first 12 winning his favor.

The 12 who won it in order of appearance are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

Famous dragon personalities

If you were born in the years 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 or 2024, you are a dragon.

Notable dragons of pop culture include Japanese creator of Super Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong Shigeru Miyamoto, British singers the late John Lennon and 16-time Grammy winner Adele, US American Pop art proponent Andy Warhol, Italian actor Roberto Benigni, the late Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai and Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro. 

And perhaps most serendipitously, the late martial arts actor, Bruce Lee was also a dragon baby; Hong Kong fans nicknamed him "Little Dragon" early on in his career and one of his famous films was 1973's "Enter the Dragon."

Each animal year is further associated with one of five elements — wood, fire, earth, metal, or water. So more precisely, 2024 is the year of the wood dragon.

 

A creature no one has actually seen

Considered one of the luckiest and most powerful animals in the Chinese zodiac, the dragon represents good luck, strength, health and the male element, Yang. Dragon people are said to be charismatic, intelligent, confident, powerful and naturally lucky and gifted. 

The dragon also has the unique distinction of being the only mythical creature in the Chinese zodiac. 

Curiously, for a creature no one has seen, the dragon has featured in the folklore and beliefs of ancient civilizations across Asia, as well as Europe, Africa and the Americas. 

Celebrated in the East, feared in the West

In East Asian cultures, the dragon has a mystical aura and was believed "to have breathed clouds, moved the seasons and controlled rivers, lakes, and seas" as described on the American Museum of Natural History's website. Despite often being depicted as wingless, dragons can fly. In Chinese mythology, a "celestial dragon" called Tianlong guards the heavenly dwellings of the gods. 

European dragons of the Middle Ages have often been depicted as malevolent, fire-breathing, bat-winged beasts that either guarded treasure or terrorized villages, thus necessitating heroes to rise and slay them. A story often depicted in European art is that of the Christian St. George rescuing a Libyan king’s daughter from a dragon and slaying it for the promise of the king’s subjects to be baptized. 

Quetzalcóatl which translates to "feathered-serpent" in the Aztec language of Nahuatl was one of the most famous dragon-like deities in Mesoamerican culture. Considered a creator god by both the Aztec and Mayan peoples, Britannica states that Quetzalcóatl was revered as the patron of priests, the inventor of the calendar and of books and the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen. 

The ancient Mesopotamian creation epic tells of the Babylonian god Marduk who killed his dragon mother, Tiamat — a four-legged non-human animal with wings, body scales, horns and fangs — because she had deprived mankind of water by withholding rain.

Fueled by fossils or fears?

Yet, how is it that dragon descriptions among these far-flung, disparate and pre-social-media societies of yore share some uncanny similarities? 

Stanford University professor Adrienne Mayor has authored several books in which she draws connections between myths and the fossils of extinct prehistoric creatures. These ancient people may have misinterpreted the bones they'd unearthed and "fleshed out" mythical creatures such as dragons, cyclops or griffins. In fact, Mayor's work has inspired multiple museum exhibitions in the United States and been featured in documentaries such as the History Channel's "Ancient Monster Hunters" (2006) and the BBC's "Dinosaurs, Myths, and Monsters" (2011).

On the other hand, in the book "An Instinct for Dragons" (2002) the late University of Central Florida anthropologist David E. Jones argued that the common traits of dragons across cultures suggested a fusion of common predators that ancient humans generally feared, like raptors, big cats, pythons or crocodiles. 

Pop culture icons

Today, famous dragons in pop culture include the Jabberwock in Lewis Carroll's classic children's novel "Through the Looking-Glass" (1872) and Smaug from J.R.R Tolkein's classic "The Hobbit" (1937). Battling different species of dragons was one of the challenges in the Triwizard Tournament in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. 

Perhaps most iconic of all is the fantasy tabletop role-playing game "Dungeons & Dragons" that first came out in 1974 and has since morphed into digital versions and been made into films, the most recent being 2023's "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves." 

Edited by: Sarah Hucal